Re[2]: idea -> internal frames?

From:

Eric M. Ludlam

Subject:

Re[2]: idea -> internal frames?

Date:

Wed, 31 Oct 2001 19:27:06 -0500

>>> Richard Stallman <address@hidden> seems to think that:
> > One tab per buffer? This sounds like a kind of buffer menu which is
> > always visible, right? But people make lots of buffers--there
> > wouldn't be space for enough tabs, would there?
>
> It has various rules to select how many and which buffers to show as tabs.
>
>Do you think it works well?
>
>Do you think this is better than the buffer menus we have? If so,
>what aspect makes it better? Is it that this menu is always visible,
>or that this menu is a good selection of buffers rather than all?
>
>Maybe we can find another design that has the same good aspect.
[ ... ]
I personally think that tabs for buffers are annoying having used
editors like that in the past. In contrast, however, I DO think that
tabbed sub-applications are ok. My reasoning is that the potential number
of buffers is limited only by memory. Lots of buffers makes tabs hard
to use.
In the Emacs view, a "sub application" might be rmail, gnus, or a
particular collection of C files grouped into a window configuration.
The speedbar frame has a similar concept that is implemented with TABS
in Microsoft Visual Studio. In this application, you can list a
hierarchy of your project in a file-oriented view, a Class oriented
view, or a view of the documentation. These three items get tabs
which lets you select between those views. While speedbar has many
more than three tabs, this is the sort of way TABS might be useful.
Anyway, what I'm getting to is that having that sort of tab notation
is a useful graphical UI metaphor. If it is added, don't fill it
willy-nilly with buffers. Let new Emacs applications choose how they
might fill them. RMAIL could list attachments. GNUS could list
attachments, or other newsgroups. cc-mode might choose to show the
*compilation* buffer, the *gud* buffer, and perhaps some other
development oriented item. Perhaps new tools will appear that provide
new ways to view or analyze code that could take advantage of
appearing on a Tab for the Modes of their choice.
Have fun
Eric
--
Eric Ludlam: address@hidden, address@hidden
Home: www.ultranet.com/~zappo Siege: www.siege-engine.com
Emacs: http://cedet.sourceforge.net GNU: www.gnu.org